Invest in Your Carbon Reputation

What can environmental product declarations (EPDs) provide as proof of low carbon credentials and how popular are they? An industry roundtable hosted by sustainability software specialists for construction and manufacturing, OneClick LCA, sought to find out.

Understanding and measuring the environmental impact of construction products and manufacturing processes is central to the ongoing decarbonisation of the built environment. As part of this drive, EPDs have become an increasingly important way to provide standardised, third party-verification of carbon impact across a product – or building – lifecycle. Is this the new currency of low-carbon credibility in construction?

As elsewhere, the construction industry is increasingly driven by data with the built environment facing unprecedented carbon scrutiny, but as the panel made up from those across the offsite, consultancy, and manufacturing sectors discussed, EPDs are rapidly becoming a new commercial and regulatory driver that can’t be ignored.

One thing is clear. There is a decisive shift in the construction and manufacturing sectors to ‘data-verified, carbon transparency’ and that EPDs are rapidly moving from a “nice-to-have” status to a competitive, commercial (and eventually) regulatory necessity. Their value is recognised not only as a compliance tool but as credible proof of low-carbon performance, a market differentiator, and a mechanism for improving design decisions and whole-life carbon outcomes.

Although not mandated, EPDs are gaining momentum and offer a ‘gold mine’ of data that can justify product use and underline their environmental impact. The Department for Education (DfE) is leading the way, with environmentally focused targets for new schools to provide heathy places to study and work. Essentially, the DfE ‘owns what they build’, are asset managers and building performance is essential for them to understand.

“Whilst it’s not mandated,” said Sam Dawe, Technical Manager, Innovaré Offsite. “The DfE have introduced embodied carbon targets for Construction Framework 25. The reason that we’ve got an EPD done is because they have set out targets for the sub-structure, the main frame, the external walls, the internal walls, so projects awarded from 2025 in the next framework for primary and secondary schools, will have to demonstrate how we are accounting for embodied carbon.”  If you can show a client that you have an EPD, it acts as an answer to many of their questions surrounding carbon credentials and makes your business an ‘easier choice’. The Future Home Standards standard – which is fundamentally connected to embodied carbon targets – will also likely mandate embodied carbon assessments, which to all intents and purposes leads to producing an EPD.

EPD adoption is accelerating as they help unlock a host of benefits, especially when involved with offsite framework requirements: specification preference, improved bid success, alignment with emerging regulations, enhanced investment appeal, and the ability to demonstrate genuine carbon transparency in a market where greenwashing is rife and carbon claims are frequently challenged.

How to combat this? As was outlined by the panel, there is a need for better consistency of data and a shared understanding of knowledge in similar – if not bordering on identical – products and systems. The offsite sector and its key materials – timber, light gauge steel and precast concrete – are all engaged in decarbonisation in their own ways, but what may be missing is a unified approach amongst similar product developers for industry-wide adoption.

It is universally acknowledged that the built environment needs to reduce its carbon emissions. Offsite manufacture is one sector that is better positioned that most to capitalise on this shift. The industrialised, factory-controlled environment naturally drives out waste, improves material efficiency, and supports circularity – advantages that traditional construction can rarely match. But without verified data, these advantages can remain invisible, or at least difficult to quantify.

The offsite environment means processes are more consistent, with ‘repeatable manufacturing cycles’ that can accommodate the EPD data gathering process more efficiently than traditional construction. Indeed, offsite could “outsmart” traditional construction if the sector moves together quickly, backed by strong data and shared standards. Trade associations have a role to play here in encouraging members to collaborate on common material-specific rules and guidance. This can go a long way to making EPD production simpler and cheaper.

For all the enthusiasm, nobody on the panel downplayed the difficulty of producing an EPD. Collecting accurate product and process data is time consuming, sometimes difficult and can be a prohibitively costly process, and when first beginning the EPD journey can be a ‘shock’. There is a requirement for detailed ‘granular’ records of energy use, material composition, waste production and recycling rates, transport, and people movements. The first EPD information gathering process is often a stark reality check, revealing data silos, many material assumptions and several operational blind spots.

Overall, there seems to be a “high level of ‘awareness’ of EPDs but very low level of understanding” on how to achieve them. The time from start to finish can also vary greatly depending on resource, complexity of product/system and size of business – initial EPDs can take 6-12 months on average. Experienced lifecycle analysis (LCA) consultants trained to interpret complex carbon modelling are busy and in short supply, and demand is in danger of overwhelming available expertise.  However, EPD scalability can improve dramatically within organisations, with one business reporting that they completed: “four EPDs in three days after establishing robust internal processes and templated data for similar products.”

A key talking point surrounded the complexity and inconsistency of data. Ever-changing Product Category Rules (PCRs) can sometimes require EPD recalculation mid-process and despite the existence of standards, manufacturers interpret boundaries differently, especially ‘highly speculative end-of-life’ scenarios. It is impossible to predict what the UK waste landscape will look like in five years, never mind 75 years. “We’re often not talking about the same boundaries,” said Dr. Hafiz Elhag, Sustainability Manager – Concrete Products, MPA Precast. “We’re not actually talking about the same exact rules. There are lots of grey areas within the science of whole life carbon assessment and the science of EPDs. Unless you have some clear rules for every single sector, or the process of doing whole life carbon assessments, there will always be inconsistency. It’s causing a level of confusion. There’s no unified rule book that everyone follows.”

For all the inconsistencies, the significance of EPDs is huge. Europe has already grown from 3,000 EPDs in 2019 to around 23,000 in 2024, and in 2025 these numbers will be significantly higher. As Andrew Cowan – UK & Ireland Business Development Lead, at One Click LCA explained: “The level of product information is constantly growing and we are taking every EPD that’s out there globally, and putting it into our system and making sure the data available is taking everybody to another level of understanding.”

This suggests EPDs are not a ‘fad’ or part of the latest ‘green wave’ of thinking but a long-term structural and carbon reporting change. Given how long the process can be, starting the EPD journey early is essential, and this was highlighted as a strategic advantage: “what’s best practice today becomes standard tomorrow.” Early adopters can ‘beat the rush’ to EPD verification as client demand grows and verification queues increase, so the advice was clear – start the EPD journey now, or risk being left behind.

Although there is some uncertainty about the journey to securing an EPD – indeed, producing an EPD, “will never be harder than it is today”, it is increasingly understood that they are an enormous opportunity for every business to accelerate decarbonisation rates, strengthen market position, and demonstrate leadership.

The road to 2030 and 2050 net zero targets is paved with many obstacles but EPD investment, provides a credible, third-party verified way of demonstrating low-carbon performance in the construction industry. A badge of integrity and reputation, a tool of competitive advantage, a catalyst for better design decisions and – critically – proof that your sustainability commitments are grounded in data-driven, measurable reality.